


Mercy Release

by BullySquadess



Series: TLATB Universe [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, heres your goddamn reveal, warning: this will probably rot your teeth out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 00:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BullySquadess/pseuds/BullySquadess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the alternate reveal scene to the fic The Ladybugs And The Bees, taking place right after Chapter 24.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mercy Release

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm assuming you all made it here from the main fic, so i'll be brief. Heres your mercy kill. Now you dont have to put up with the mindless, plotless sin that is tlatb. Take your fluff, and know the sin mother still loves all her innocent babies <3
> 
> (and for those of you who plan on continuing to read tlatb and are just here for shits and giggles...fuckin enjoy you filthy sinners)

Marinette's first instinct was to scream.

And although her luck seemed to be running scarce at that moment, she found the wherewithal to not immediately break down. The pounding of her heart seemed to beat a steady rhythm that chanted out _“…mis-take, mis-take, mis-take…”_ with each new frazzled pulse.

_‘Oh my God. I’m Marinette. I’m Marinette and I’m lying on a rooftop with…'_

Despite her better judgement, she snuck a quick peek downwards.

She saw blonde hair. She saw a white blazer. She saw a now-silver ring slid onto gloveless hands.

What she did _not_  see was leather cat ears. Well, that, or the face of her very-civilianized boyfriend as he remained snuggling against her abdomen.

_“…mis-take, mis-take, mis-take…”_

Marinette wrenched her gaze over to where the kwami still rested, trying to will her friend over through sheer mind-power alone. _‘Please come, please save me!’_ she projected desperately, the panic that was settling over her rivalling the weight of not-Chat as he continued to sleep peacefully atop her. When that didn’t work, Marinette resorted to using more tested forms of communication.

“TIKKI. _PSSTT,_ TIKKI…” she hissed, not daring to raise her voice above a whisper as she desperately tried to rouse her snoozing companion. _‘Just two minutes you told yourself. Two. Measly. Minutes. What could be the harm? What could go wrong? A WHOLE GODDAMN LOT APPARENTLY.’_

Maybe it was the fact she was panicking, or perhaps Marinette just had a knack for fucking herself over, but in that moment slamming her hand down on the roof seemed a perfectly logical course of action.

And it had the intended effect…to a point.

The muted slap did wake the kwamis, Tikki’s eyes flying open with a start as Plagg just grumbled his way awake, but the sound also roused the fourth party on the rooftop.

 ** _‘HELP ME,’_**  Marinette mouthed at her friend, fear gripping her chest as she felt not-Chat Noir shift atop her. The speckled kwami looked on, taking a second to analyze the situation before a downright sinister grin split her sweet face. A quick glance at her dark companion only seemed to solidify the idea forming behind the creature's bright gaze, Plagg giving Marinette a wink as he pushed himself up to hover in the air.

_‘She wouldn’t…’_

In the next moment both kwamis were floating, giving twin waves as they zipped off with barely contained snickers.

Marinette made a mental note to go out and buy bug spray.

Marinette also, in an incredible feat of ‘not-thinking-things-through’, let her kwami’s name slip between her teeth in a not-so-whisper.

In fact more like a growl, actually.

Well, let’s make that a snarl…

And like all instinctual animals should, Chat Noir reacted immediately to the noise, his blonde head popping up as he looked for the source of the sound with sleep-fogged vision.

“Eep!”

Marinette looked straight ahead, keeping his fuzzy face in periphery as she squeaked out her displeasure. She stayed incredibly still, body taut as she felt the guy below swivel around with mumbled sighs formed by a lazy tongue.

_‘Maybe if I don’t move he won't spot me…’_

“Wush goin on?”

_‘Just don’t move, don’t breathe…’_

“Wait…a-am I…and Ladybug, you…?”

_‘…and we can still end this day with our identities—‘_

“…Marinette?”

 

_'Fuck'_

 

The girl screwed her eyes shut, taking in three deep breaths as her mind kicked into maximum overdrive in a bid to process the situation she now faced. _‘Chat Noir knows who you are. He knows who you are and is right on top of you without his transformation. So you’re going to open your eyes, properly introduce yourselves, talk it over and laugh it off. So what if it’s not the way you wanted this to go down? It’s not the end of the world. You can be calm and cool and collected. You can handle this like an adult.’_

Marinette looked down

“Hi, Cha— **mu _dgftfff!?!_ ”**

It was the end of the world.

And Marinette was not calm or cool or any other appropriate adjective as she took in the sight of one bed-headed, flabbergasted, ON-HER-STOMACH Adrien Agreste staring up at her like she was a black hole come to swallow up the earth.

At the sound of her babbling, the boy pushed himself up with a gape, now kneeling BETWEEN HER LEGS as his hands flew up before him in a warding gesture. Snapping her jaw shut, Marinette scrabbled backwards until her back hit the wall with a thump that echoed across the now silent rooftop.

For a solid 30 seconds the two just stared, eyes roving over each other’s faces in search of the masks that were no longer there. Adrien was like a statue before her, body entirely still apart from the way his chest heaved and his gaze wandered. He looked just like a cat caught with the canary, yet it was his stunning resemblance to another feline in particular that punched Marinette right in the center of her chest.

 _‘I... am Ladybug,’_  she thought, starting with the simplest statement in an attempt to somehow organize the hellstorm that was her mind.

 _‘Ladybug is dating Chat Noir.’_  Yep, no new facts here.

 _‘Chat Noir is Adrien Agreste.’_  Now that’s where things started to get fuzzy.

 _‘So by extension… I am dating Adrien Agreste.’_  

 

And _that’s_  where things broke down for her entirely.

He shattered the silence first.

“Fuck,” Adrien breathed, never severing eye contact as both hands slowly raked through the front of his hair. Marinette could only concur. Silently, of course, because her tongue was still having trouble producing any sound besides a gurgle. So she nodded, quick and concise.

The girl pulled herself up onto shaking legs as her partner did the same, the two mirroring each other's movement even out of their costumes. Once they were both semi-upright, Adrien opened his mouth to speak again, only to have her hand fly up to stop him.

“Let's just…can you…” The girl fought to make her mouth and brain work in tandem.

_‘Words Marinette, speak WORDS.’_

“C-can you just let me scream for about 8 seconds? That would…that would really help me right now.”

Her boyfriend — ADRIEN AGRESTE — made a “go ahead” motion, jumping nearly a foot in the air nonetheless when Marinette launched into a banshee call the likes of which Paris had never heard before. A nearby roost of pigeons took flight, the sharp yell fracturing the night with its intensity before eventually petering off into a single choked laugh.

“Well, okay!” Marinette said cheerfully, sucking in lungfuls of air as she tried to regulate her heartbeat. “You...you maybe want to take a turn?” Adrien pressed his lips together, giving a shake of the head.

“No no, that’s all you,” he assured her, taking a deep breath of his own before continuing on in a falsely light tone. “So… uh… hi Marinette.”

A beat.

“Hi Adrien,” she whispered at last, working up a blush as they exchanged tentative half-smiles. _‘Ok…ok. He hasn’t immediately run off, so that’s a good sign! Maybe this isn’t the end of the world quite-’_

 “So…we’ve made out quite a lot in these past few weeks.”

Nope, Armageddon was back on.

Marinette _choked_ , glancing up sharply to take in the hint of mischief buried beneath Adrien’s stunned exterior. The look was heart-shatteringly familiar to her, and though she had never seen it without a black mask to accentuate its cockiness, the expression played dangerously well across the model’s face.

_‘You’ve got a type.’_

“Oh my God,” she breathed, bracing a hand against the wall for stability as their multiple midnight trysts came flooding back to her in stunning clarity. “Oh my God, I’ve had your—” here she threw a hand out to gesture at his midsection with high-pitched gurgle, “—all over my…and we…and you…” Marinette trailed off with a distressed keening noise, eyes bugging out of her head as every embrace, every kiss she’d ever shared with Chat over the course of their relationship burned across her skin in vivid memory.

“Yep!” Adrien chirped, his face equally as stunned as the words poured out over his slackened jaw. “Yep, yep, yep! I’ve been sitting next to the love of my life in class every day for the past four years and couldn’t even recognize her, yep, that’s cool! Everything is cool, cool, cool, cool, cool!”

_‘Adrien Agreste just called me the love of his life.’_

Needless to say, everything wasn’t cool.

“We’ve been dating!” Marinette choked out, looking to him for confirmation since she couldn’t quite believe the words herself.

“Yes we have,” Adrien affirmed with violent nod, looking at her as if it were their first time meeting. And in a way it was. “So I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess I’m the mystery man you wanted to take steamy pics for?”

Good God, she had forgotten the pictures.

“Yeah well… what about the girl you were popping boners for, hmmmm?” Marinette countered, almost letting loose a hysterical laugh at the notion their joint gospel lesson was really just the two of them learning how to sext each other.

The motherfucker had the audacity to _grin._

“Chat Noir you wipe that smirk off of Adrien’s cutie-pie face right this minute!” she shrieked, seeming to have lost all grip on her volume control due to her current inner turmoil. He looked aghast.

“I’m not a cutie-pie! I’m a…” Adrien grasped for his words with a hiss, snapping when at last they came, “…a sexy-pie! Yeah, a very manly, sexy-pie!”

Marinette could only gape, watching as her long-time unrequited crush, her newfound friend, her partner of 4 years and now her very first boyfriend slowly aligned, each identity overlapping until all that was left was this beautiful, goofy, sincere, reckless, and utterly perfect person pacing the rooftop before her. The very same person who was now listing off all his completely un-cute qualities while running one hand through wild, blonde (and most definitely cute) hair.

This person wasn’t Chat, but he wasn’t Adrien either. In fact Marinette almost didn’t want to put a name to the face, for fear of losing one or both of them in the presence of this foreign young man. He was a seamless amalgam, an entirely new being that took the very best and worst of both boys and brought them together in the most poignant and pulse-spiking of ways.

“I can’t believe this,” Marinette whispered, the words halting Adrien’s march as he turned to look at her fully, “I can’t believe it’s you.” The boy flinched as if she’d stuck him, frantic eyes melting into something much more melancholy as he fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt.

He looked as if he were about to say something, but she didn’t give him the chance.

“I can’t believe the face I fell in love with, and the personality I grew to love… actually belong to the same person.”

The words came out like a release, lifting with them a weight Marinette hadn’t even realized she was carrying until at last the pressure was gone. Though framed as a confession, the statement carried more like a simple truth, one she couldn’t bring herself to regret.

“Marinette…” Adrien said, his voice a prayer as he took four shaking steps towards her, “say that again.” The girl straightened, heart hammering just inches away from his chest as he glanced down at her with an aching plea in his too-familiar eyes. Marinette spoke in a whisper, hoping (yet ultimately knowing) her words were the ones he wanted to hear.

"I love you."

She was Marinette. She was not miraculous. She was not Ladybug. She was-

 

Then Adrien “Chat Noir” Agreste was kissing her.

 

All at once her friend from school was cradling her cheeks, her self-sacrificing partner was letting his eyes flutter close, her crush was slanting soft lips against hers, and her boyfriend was crying. Soft and warm and insistent as he cradled her, as if he feared she might slip away. Marinette was taken aback by the sheer emotional impact of the embrace, shuddering as she felt all four of the boys draw back to whisper in the space between their lips.

“Didn’t I tell you I’d love the girl under the mask just as much?”

Then it was just him. Just his glassy eyes, and his tear-streaked cheeks, and his choked-up voice whispering adoration as he peppered every inch of her exposed face with kisses so gentle she thought she might have imagined them. Marinette hoped with every last bit of strength she had in that moment that they _were_ , in fact, real. That _he_  was real, and here, and telling her — not Ladybug, but her — over and over that he loved her.

Marinette broke from her trance, however, as Adrien’s once-silent tears broke out into tiny, shaking sobs. His _“I love you”_ s and occasional _“You love me”_ s, slowly devolving into little more than murmurs as the taller boy seemed to fold in around her.

Though she herself was still reeling, Marinette rushed to calm him. Somehow that fact she had a sniffling, lovestruck Adrien Agreste wrapped in her arms didn’t throw her off nearly as much as she would have thought, and she might have been proud of her own composure if not for the fact her boyfriend was still a blubbering mess above her.

“Sssshhhhh…” she soothed, running her hands in wide arcs across his broad, shuddering back. “This is…I mean…”  Marinette tried desperately to find the right words. She wanted her Ladybug confidence back; no doubt the heroine would know what to say in a situation like this.

But then she remembered the boy in her arms wasn’t reacting to Ladybug saying she loved Chat, he was reacting to Marinette saying she loved Adrien, and suddenly her mind seemed to clear.

Inexplicably, she grinned.

“This is good,” she said, exhaling as she felt him still around her, “This is happy, isn't it? Happy tears, a happy surprise?” Her last utterance was almost a plea. His blonde head untucked itself from under her jaw, blinking as he rose up before her.

“Yeah,” Adrien confirmed, shaking his head with a dazed expression as he seemed to slowly come out of his spell, “Yeah of course. Very happy tears. Very, _very_ happy surprise.” He emphasized that last statement with an incline of his head, and Marinette’s heart clenched at the sincerity.

One of his hands reached up to rid his cheeks of their lingering moisture while the other held on to the back of her neck for dear life. “Sorry about…” Adrien gestured vaguely to his being, “… it’s just been a while since someone’s told me that…” He trailed off with a wistful smile, the expression simultaneously warming Marinette, and making her stomach turn at its sorrowful undertone.

“Well then,” the girl began, giving Adrien her brightest grin and reveling in the way he seemed to perk up at its arrival, “I guess I’ve got a lot of 'I love yous' to make up for.” She had just enough time to work up a blush at his awestruck appearance _(‘Adrien Agreste is looking at me like that!’)_ before rolling onto her toes to give his face the very same treatment she had received just moments ago.

“I love you!”

A kiss on the forehead.

“I love Adrien!”

A kiss on the nose.

“I love Chat!”

A kiss on the cheek.

“And I love my boyfriend, regardless of which name he goes by!”

When she kissed him on the mouth, it was through a giddy smile, her grin widening as Adrien’s did. They tried to hold it together, they really did, but the entire situation was just too ridiculous to stay silent. In seconds, they had broken into giggles, attempting to sustain their kiss (which was really no more their stretched lips pressing on and off at this point) even as the two teens dissolved in full-bellied laughs and pokes.

“What’s so funny?” the girl finally asked, pulling her flushing face away as she admired his unmasked features. _‘Hm, it’s nice to see his eyebrows,’_  she thought idly, admiring the way Chat’s wild hair seemed at home atop Adrien’s head.

“I just kissed Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s beautiful face,” he replied, putting his newly exposed eyebrows to good use as they waggled around his forehead. A month ago, Marinette would have melted right off the face of the earth at the flirty display, but now she just let out a snort.

“Yeah, well, I just kissed Adrien Agreste’s cutie-pie face,” she shot back, smirking as she watched him conjure a pout.

“Hey, c’mon. I thought we agreed on sexy-pie!”

“There is absolutely no way in hell I will ever refer to you as sexy-pie!”

“And why not?” Adrien bemoaned, seeming to regain his bravado by the minute as he let his hands slide down to settle on her waist. He’d yet to reach Chat Noir levels of deviancy, however, instead settling somewhere between the hero and the model as he gave her another quirk of his brow.

_‘Oh, now that combination is deadly.’_

“Because it sounds dirty,” Marinette replied with a sniff, ignoring the way her stomach flipped at the sight of Chat’s smirk on Adrien’s face.

_‘Very, very deadly.’_

“Says the girl who just told me last night that she wanted me to come sneak in her window…”

“ _That_  was Ladybug.”

“ _You_  are Ladybug,” he countered, slowly swaying them in a side to side motion under the moonlight.

“And it sure took you long enough to find out.”

“Well it took you long enough to figure out your handsome French class partner and your handsome boyfriend are the same mega-handsome guy.” Marinette sighed, enjoying their subtle dance before letting her next words slip with a smile.

“More like cutie-pie.”

…

 _‘Oh that’s it,’_  Adrien thought with a giddy huff, _‘now she’s done it.’_

Marinette took off a second before he did, her blue eyes alighting with a familiar fire as she turned to sprint across the terminal’s glass-panelled roof. Adrien shot after her, exchanging taunts with the girl as they tore their way to the southern end.

_‘You love Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Marinette Dupain-Cheng loves you.’_

“You say it, and I stop chasing you….” Adrien sing-songed, quickly gaining ground towards her.

_‘All that time, she was always right there.’_

“Not in your dreams!” she shot back confidently.

Of course that confidence was short lived as she realized they had reached the edge of the roof. Marinette’s eyes scanned her surroundings, shoulders drooping as she realized there weren’t any escape routes in sight. She was cornered.

_‘Gotcha.’_

Adrien traipsed lazily towards her, watching as Marinette put up a folded-arms stance, eyes glued to the ground. Not a gesture of defeat, he realized, but one of amused defiance. Seeing her standing there, pose confident and jaw working to ward off the grin that threatened to split the bottom of her face…

It reminded Adrien of why he’d fallen for her in the first place.

He stopped before her, appraising the girl with amusement before continuing in a victorious drawl.

“My Lady.”

“Chat.”

_“Marinette.”_

_“Adrien.”_

“I just want to hear you say it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That was a lie. Marinette fidgeted below him, unwilling to admit defeat just yet.

“Oh, I think you do know,” Adrien continued, leaning down in an attempt to draw her gaze.

He turned his head every which way, chuckling when she petulantly refused to look up from her feet. Adrien realized his victory would not be easy to seize, but when had that ever stopped him in the past?

This time his actions were intentional as he slipped two fingers up under Marinette’s chin, slowly lifting her head until their gazes were even. Her blue eyes snapped to his, sending a now-recognizable jolt down his spine as he revelled in the intimacy of their position.

“I love you?” she tried, swallowing to keep the grin from overtaking her flushed face.

It wasn’t exactly the answer Adrien had been asking after, but definitely the one he wanted to hear.

And this time, there was no Miraculous beep to interrupt their kiss.

 

 


End file.
